The return of Coach Lasso

The English Premier League has been growing wildly popular across the pond in the USA over the last few years. Originally the preserve of displaced Britishers and other foreigners, Irish pubs and other drinking establishments have been packed on Saturday and Sunday mornings as the game grows throughout the country.

Last season NBC Sports won a multi-million dollar television rights agreement to broadcast every single Premier League game in the USA, and that served to multiply the world's biggest sport's following even more. While the name 'football' remains irrevocably tied to American Football, football as the rest of the world knows it has gained more traction as 'soccer' and 'futbol' in America. In time-honored tradition, the NBCSN chose to use satire to market the game with comedy star Jason Sudeikis playing a hapless football coach Ted Lasso who goes across the Atlantic to coach Tottenham Hotspur.

After a World Cup that was wildly cheered on throughout the USA, not least because the team made a decent showing of themselves, NBCSN is bracing itself for an even bigger year with increased viewership numbers as the season is about to kick off. And what better way to do that than to bring back the erstwhile Sudeikis reprising his role as Coach Lasso, albeit a few steps lower down than the Premier League. There's even a special treat in there for Everton fans as a certain bearded presence shows up playing someone who looks like Tim Howard.